The best time to see the aurora borealis here on Earth is during the coldest and darkest nights of the year, so people in the Northern Hemisphere still have a few more nights of ideal viewing. However, here on Earth we only get to see half the show. But luckily for us, the folks orbiting 240 miles above us on the International Space Station have been documenting what we’ve been missing.

The aurora borealis and its southern sister, the aurora australis, are just as breathtaking from above, and the astronauts get a clear view any time of year. These atmospheric light shows are a product of charged particles interacting with the Earth’s magnetic sphere and are often tied to solar wind or other sun surface activity. Whichever way you look at it, the phenomenon is surreal.

It's sometimes hard for me believe that this is real. I've still never seen it for myself.

I have seen strong displays from Earth and it's absolutely f'ing breathtaking. I could watch them for hours. Seeing them from orbit must be stunning.

To see them at their best there has to have been a solar coronal mass ejection (solar storm), a ground observer should be at a fairly high latitude (40° or better) and the skies dark (as in being in a rural location.)